Buyer Chosen For Ouerbacher Mansion

A renovation plan has been approved for the Ouerbacher Mansion on West Jefferson Street in Louisville’s Russell neighborhood.

This week the city/county land bank authority considered 14 proposals to renovate the crumbling building, which dates to the 1860s. They narrowed that list to four finalists and Friday afternoon they chose Studio Kremer Architects for the project.

The Jeffersontown based firm will pay one dollar for the building and receive a $100,000 grant to begin renovations. Mayor’s office spokesperson Kerri Richardson says the firm has a lot of work to do on the mansion.

“The first thing, obviously, is to get it structurally sound so that the building will not be a danger to neighbors or people who are passing by,” says Richardson. “That is priority number one.”

Once the Ouerbacher house is made sound, Richardson says it will likely be turned into offices for a nonprofit organization, although no tenant has been identified.